Easter Fun and Menu Ideas 2012

Easter is BIG DOINGS where I’m from so today I’m going to share with you some fun ideas for the kids and some yummy ideas for your table!

Game and Activity Ideas

My mother makes Easter FUN by taking part in all sorts of neat activities with the kids (of all ages!)

Old Fashioned Party Games – We all gather at Mama’s house for Easter Dinner and a big egg hunt in her back yard. The kids most look forward to the old fashioned party games my mother plays with them.

Drop the clothespin in the jar – Give each child a clothes pin and place a large mason jar at their feet. Have them hold the clothes pin at chest level and try to drop it in the jar.

Pin the tail on the donkey – Place a drawing of a donkey or bunny rabbit on the wall. Give each child a tail with tape on the end of it. Blindfold them and turn them around a time or two, then point them in the direction of the wall and let ’em go!

Egg Race – Give each child a spoon with an egg on it. Line ’em up at a starting line and send ’em off! Whoever gets to the finish line first with their egg still on their spoon wins.

Egg toss – Have two kids face each other, one with an egg. Toss the egg to the child opposite them and then take a step back. Toss the egg back. Take another step back. Repeat until someone drops the egg. The team that makes it furthest apart wins! Mama never cooks the eggs so this one is always a little more exciting and someone ends up having to wash egg off their hands.

Vaseline Cotton Ball Pickup – Place a dab of vaseline on the tip of the kids noses and have them move cotton balls from one bowl to another using just their vaseline tipped noses, seeing who can move the most in an allotted amount of time. We’re weird, but we have fun!

Egg Hunt – In recent years we’ve stopped putting prizes in the eggs and started awarding prizes instead. We have the same prizes and number for every kid in the family but they haven’t caught on that they’re all winning the same things and in equal amounts just yet. Mama will sit everyone down and have them go through their baskets to find out who has the most pink eggs, who has the most blue eggs, who found the most two tone eggs, etc.

Dyeing Eggs – Last year we found that not all of the kids in our family had got to dye eggs at their house, so Mama cooked up a dozen eggs for each child and we set up a big table for them to dye the eggs on Easter day. I just brought my kid’s eggs and dye supplies with me and they had a lot of fun getting to do it with all of their cousins. Even though a lot of folks aren’t doing this anymore, it is one of my most cherished memories as a kid at Easter and I encourage you to continue this simple tradition with your kids, too! Besides, deviled eggs, egg salad, ham salad, chicken casserole, and many more delicious recipes await you the following week as a result! Don’t forget to store your dyed eggs in the fridge! Hint: Just to make sure you know, you’re never too old to have fun dyeing Easter Eggs!

Peep Sword Fighting – NEW this year in my family. My mother has always had a fun spirit and loves to do new things to thrill the kids. Since we have mostly boys, she’s decided to let them do peeps sword fighting this year. You take two marshmallow peeps of different colors, have them face each other on a plate and stick a toothpick in each one like it’s a sword. Place them in the microwave and turn it on and watch. As they heat up they will expand and the one who sticks the other with his little toothpick first wins. Of course, these will eventually explode in your microwave so you wanna watch and stop the fight when the opponent is stuck. I’m just glad this is Mama’s microwave and not mine but she’s right, the boys will love it (and think she is a cool grandmama, too!).

Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt – A few years ago when we moved into our new house, we found out that the community hosted a flashlight Easter Egg Hunt! We took the kids, looking forward to some fun, but upon seeing how it was executed and the crowds involved we quickly realized this was not a safe event for our kids to participate in. Not wanting the kids to miss out on our planned fun, we headed to our local dollar store and picked up some prizes to come home and have our own. Flashlight egg hunts are SO easy and fun to pull off in your own back yard because there is no real need to hide anything due to the dark. We divide our back yard in half and each kid gets their own exclusive hunting grounds. I hide tons of eggs but also include some other random goodies as well. Since we had to set it up on the fly that first year, I ended up using some odd things as prizes but they’ve stuck as tradition now! This means that in addition to eggs in the yard, the kids will also find a random can of Pringles and whatever else I can come up with (chicken noodle soup, fruit snack packs, etc). We usually do this the night before Easter and it has become one of the things we all most look forward to.

I’d LOVE to hear what you do at your house on Easter in the comments section!

Menu Ideas

Now that we’ve given you plenty of game and fun ideas, here are some ideas on what to cook for the big meal!

Just click on the link below each picture to be taken to the recipe. I’m also going to tell you beneath each recipe how far ahead I assemble the dishes in case you want to streamline your Easter as well and leave you spending less time in the kitchen and more time with your family!

This post contains ideas and links to recipes for side dishes, breads, main courses, desserts, and beverages!

If you’re feeding children who tend to be on the picky side, a relish tray on the table is the way to go! All of their favorites that they can put on their plate, but all healthy options, too! This is how I round out the meal for my pickiest eaters.

This is the MUST HAVE pie each Easter. While store bought ones are all good and well, anyone can make this homemade version in about the same amount of time it would take you to go buy one at the grocery store and I can guarantee you the reviews will make your efforts more than worth it!

A lemon meringue pie unlike any other. (Click the name to view a full photographic tutorial and get the recipe!)

Thank you so much for all your creative ideas! I have a small family when it comes to children so i have to come up with ideas that us adults can get in on too so the little one does not feel alone. I will have to use some of these!

Thanks for helping me out with my Easter menu – got up this a.m. thinking what I’m going to do! I love the old truck in the background, my husband has one (53′ chevy) he has restored that reminds me of this one.

Here’s a fun game for young & old. We play this at the table right before we eat. It’s called “Tip to Tip, Butt to Butt”. (I think it may have had a real name, but that’s what we’ve always called it.) Everyone picks out a hard boiled Easter Egg (uncracked) and turns to their neighbor holding the egg. Either person can then crack their egg on the other’s using either the tip end or the butt end of the egg. Only one egg will crack. First you crack tips together, then you crack butts. Once both ends of your egg is cracked, you are out of the game. Keep going until someone is left with either a fully uncracked egg or one end still intact. The winner in our house gets a little prize. Try it and have a fun Easter!

Not only do my grandchildren enjoy an egg hunt at Easter (hiding them over and over), but we also do a pumpkin hunt at Halloween using the mini pumpkins and Halloween treat bags filled with candy or little prizes. This way we have at least two hunts a year. I’ve found other opportunities for a “hunt” as my grandchildren love it for any reason. We’ve also had night hunts with flashlights. The pumpkin hunt was started when my first granddaughter came to visit right before Halloween. I hid pumpkins before she arrived and was able to keep her busy hunting with a flashlight while my daughter unpacked the car.

We have young children and are just getting started with hunts. What are some egg stuffer ideas besides candy??? One gets sick after the thrid peice of candy and the other on is bouncing off the tree tops.

Oh, you can fill with so much fun stuff!!! Collect fortunes from all your take out Chinese cookies for reuse, small foreign/regular change for piggy banks, tiny toys from Target or Walmart , small coupons from you for an extra book at night or they get to pick out a tv show or grocery

We fill our eggs with random small change, tattoos, stickers, balloons, small toys, matchbox cars, bouncie balls, plastic bead necklaces, and some with special strips of paper “coupons” which can be used for an ice cream cone after dinner, extra time to play the Wii, pick your own movie night, etc. We donate most of our candy to my office.

I love the idea of a flashlight egg hunt! I’d like to try it but since we have a large patch of woods that borders our backyard, I’m afraid one of the young’uns might step on a snake!! We’ve seen a few already this year. Maybe we’ll try some of the other ideas instead…

We have the same issue with snakes and bugs here in my neck of the woods. So I always have an indoor flashlight egg hunt. Make the kids stay in their room while you hide them all over, then I put one candle in the kitchen and turn off all the lights and let them go!

We always dye eggs and do the traditional egg hunt, but I like to start off the festivities by reading or telling the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrectiion. That way each one knows just what it is we are celebrating. We have even used the “resurrection eggs” as a way of telling the story. There are small reminders of the events leading up to Jesus crucifixion in each egg. Whoever finds the egg, shows what’s inside and tells what it means.

Debbie, I was just reading the comments on Christy Jordan’s southern plate blog and saw your comment about her Jordan Rolls. I have made them several times and love them, but I never seem to know how much flower to add when I am rolling them out. It is a very wet dough, so I know you have to use some, but how much do you add when patting or rolling them out? Don’t want to add too much and make them tough! Thanks, Donna

Mama Franks ( my grandmother ) always told me when someone was calling me a name, or trying to start something ” Don’t wrestle with the pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it”. I have always loved this one.

LOVED reading about your mama’s Easter Sunday games! What fun! I’ve always loved participating in Easter egg hunts (guess I’ll never grow up either). One year, I invited a friend’s day care children over to hung eggs and treat them with some snacks after they finished hunting eggs. Those kids are now teenagers but still remember coming here to hunt eggs. Have a BLESSED Easter!

I have no little ones left but I found a need at our church. For the past 12 years I have held an Easter Egg hunt on Holy Saturday on the lawn of the parish center. We hide over 1,000 eggs with only 25 having a prize in them – we check a certain color egg for a prize indicator but those that don’t are excitedly told that they have won a bag of candy. The first year we did it (trial and error) I had $50 worth of candy that dropped into the bottom of the bag and looked like I had 5 cents worth in each bag. We ran out and got big candy bars to fill the void. Now I give a full package of the cheese & crackers, a big candy bar or the equivalent & and few small pieces – looks like we gave them the world. Our prizes are bunnies of all sizes we have three categories – 1-3 yrs, 4-5 yrs & 6-10yrs. We even have our own Easter Bunny who poses for pictures with the children. Our youth group helps put the eggs out for the hunt and face paints the children. Amazingly we start the hunt at 9am sharp, by 10am we are cleaning up the crumbs of the cookies & milk we serve. We usually get around 65-80 children so it is quite easy to manage. It is great fun!

EasterSunday I get up early and go to Sunrise Service at my church, then we havea breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham juice and toast. After morning service i go to my daughter’s home for a great dinner, she always has baked ham, sweet potatoes and way too much food! Praising the Lord is what it is al about.

Our 3 kids are grown and on their own, making their special family traditions, and using some that we had when they were young.Two are out of the Country.
I’ve had an Easter tree for years. My hubby made it. He got a nice tree branch and set it in a cool whip container and filled it with plaster. It set up so nicely. He sprayed the tree branches white. I had little colletible eggs, bunnies and all kinds of special Easter ornaments that I enjoyed using. I put colorful grass around the cool whip container…and laid pretty eggs around it. I had a tea once after he made the tree and the gals each brought a little ornament for it. I look at those and enjoy thinking of each person.

For dinner we’ve always had ham/sweet potatoes/buttermilk congeal salad and green bean casseroles and rolls and whatever someone wants to bring.. For dessert I make a keylime pie, but put a little dye in to make one pink and the other green…

And most of all we rejoice that Christ has risen!!! He has risen indeed!

During summer vacation, my two nieces stay with me every day. I will definitely be putting some of these game ideas to use. If your kids are tired of the same old Easter egg hunt, you might make a list of items and turn it into a scavenger hunt.

My mother (God rest her soul) was so wonderful. Even as adults she still gave us a Easter basket, my husband was shocked the first Easter we were married. He looked forward each year after that for his basket. The Easter dinner was sooo good, juicy baked ham, potato salad, pea salad, green beans, sweet potatos, and coconut cream pie, and apple pie , and of course fruit salad for my grandfather. i carried these on till all the youngs ones were gone. Now I go out for Easter, my husband passed and it is hard to cook just for two(my daughter lives with me). Just can’t get the hang of big feast days for two. But I love and cherish those wonderful memories. Thank you Lord for them, they are so special.

well wanted to try some more of your receipes…all of them are great, but my grown kids are asking for chicken Fajitas!! for easter??? hmmmm seems the two of our 5 children that will be here for easter and their spouses are all in agreement…. guess my husband and i are outnumbered…LOL oh well will fix the ham and trimming for him nextweekend ( what do you want to bet the kids show up for that meal as well…LOL
Hope you and your family as well as all of the Southern Plate family have a safe, wonderful Blessed Easter! May we never forget the true meaning!

Couldn’t decide which we wanted so we did both…Crock Pot Dressing with Turkey Breast and Easy Peasy Glazed Ham…cooking now and smelling WONDERFUL…..the whole family will be here this afternoon..A Blessed and Happy Easter to the SP family.

Please everyone be careful with night egg hunts.My granddaughter was snake bitten last Easter and had to be hospitalized. Thank God she recovered. But her foot was black for weeks afterward and it could have been fatal.She is not interested in egg hunts this year.Anyway today was her tenth birthday and she is celebrating all weekend.

I would like to have the recipe you used at Easter 2012 mamas creamy macaroni and cheese please. I really enjoy all your recipes. Im from Baxley GA. and I love to cook. Thank you so much. Dianne Williams

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[…] Directions: Divide kids into 2 teams. Each team has a bowl of cotton balls and an empty bowl. The first person in each team places a dab of Vaseline on the tip of their noses and have to move cotton balls from one bowl to another using just their Vaseline tipped noses in an allotted amount of time. When time is up next person goes and so on. The team that moves all their cotton balls into the other bowl first, wins. Originally from SouthernPlate.com {here}. […]

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